User blog:J. Severe/Tokyo Game Show Blog of Cool Games that Haven't Been Announced for Localization Yet
Do you know what the Tokyo Game Show is? Well, you may have heard of it, but not know the exact specifics of the thing. Well, it's an event similar to the United States' own E3 -- a convention where video games fans far and wide attend to play the latest unreleased games from developers and publishers and get first looks at just-announced titles. Except for the fact that, you know, it takes place in Tokyo, millions of miles from here. Nevertheless, thanks to the power of the internet, we know everything that goes on over there, and we too can learn of the new games that have been unveiled over there. Here are a handful of the games announced at the trade show that might interest you: ''Kingdom Hearts -1.5 HD ReMIX'' and Kingdom Hearts for PC Browsers Our first one (and the one I'm most hyped for) is the long-awaited first HD collection of the Kingdom Hearts series, which was announced out of nowhere at the event. Though series creator Tetsuya Nomura has hinted at wanting to do such a thing for awhile now, no one was really expecting it to be coming this early. I suppose we should have realized it was on its way soon when a secret journal entry in Kingdom Hearts 3D said that "the past will be reawakened as a new number in never-before seen detail." So what's in this collection? Well, it includes HD remasters of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, originally released on PlayStation 2. As well, the cutscenes from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days will be available, remade in HD, in the game's theater mode. All of this will be available exclusively for PlayStation 3, and will be released in Japan sometime next year. The official website can be found here. A trailer was shown at Square Enix's Megatheater at the convention center, and should be online in a matter of days. So why are KH1 and Re:CoM remade and not the full Days game? Well, look at all the other HD collections for PS3 - most of them are of PS2 games. Thus, I'd have to guess there exists a PS2 -> PS3 remastering machine somewhere, which makes the process easy and explains why so many HD collections are being cranked out these days. Since Days is for DS, Square Enix would actually have to redo all the assets of the game, which would require effort, which we all hate, hence why it's not there. The cutscenes for Days though were made using a PS2 before being ported to the DS as video files, so the original sources can be remastered. Get it? So what can we expect from this collection? The games in widescreen, and at least 720p high-definition. Square Enix might also add some new stuff in - say, maybe a couple new secret bosses and a secret ending that hints towards KH3? Only time will tell... Now, of less importance, but still worth mentioning is Kingdom Hearts for PC Browsers. This isn't the final name of course, because if it was, :lol, but a tentative title. As you can guess, it's a free-to-play game (with some stuff that you may have to pay for in-game) that you can play... get this... on your PC internet browser. You'll be able to create your own avatar, who is a Keyblade wielder, and travel across worlds, just like the regular titles. You could say it's something of a KH MMO. The graphics will be in 2D, with the character designs done by the same guy who did the ones for Kingdom Hearts Mobile and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Chronologically, this game will be earliest in the series, taking place directly before the Keyblade War, which was mentioned in Birth by Sleep and KH3D. With chaos beginning to spread between the world, it's up to you and your friends to restore balance. Gameplay-wise, the title will have a card-based system similarly to Chain of Memories - though it won't exactly be the same. Gameplay of this was also shown at TGS that hasn't been released online yet... we'll probably also see this soon. EDIT: The ''-HD 1.5 ReMIX'' trailer has been uploaded onto the game's official site, and others have uploaded it onto YouTube. While the trailer on the site looks a smidgen better, I'll put the YT video onto here just for the heck of it. Notably, you can see that some reaction commands have been added to the gameplay, and scenes from Days that were not originally cutscenes have been remade for this collection, and are thus built from the ground up (meaning they could be indicative of what KH3 on the system would look like). But I'll shut up now and let you witness the beauty: ''Bravely Default: Flying Fairy'' Another Square Enix game that was showcased was Bravely Default: Flying Fairy for Nintendo 3DS. It's the spiritual successor to the DS title Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. There's not much to say about this, other than that it looks beautiful, the gameplay seems engaging, and it's looks to be one of the best RPGs on the system, or that Square Enix has released in the last couple years alone. The game hits Japanese stores on October 11. ''Dragon Quest X'' Our third Square Enix game is an RPG like the other two, but a different kind - an MMORPG. Dragon Quest X is the first of the kind in the series, and allows you to team up with people all around the world (requiring a constant internet connection) to take on monsters, do side-quests, and all the other great stuff the series is known for. This particular game was also released for the Wii in Japan August 2, 2012. The Wii U version, set for release in March of next year, will sport cleaner graphics and the ability to play the entire thing on the GamePad. Neither version of the title has been confirmed to be localized, but if it will be, many think it's likely that only this one will make it over, since the Wii's lifetime is nearly over in the West. The first gameplay footage of the Wii U version debuted at TGS, which you can see right here: ''Monster Hunter 4'' On the Capcom side of thing, we have Monster Hunter 4. The Monster Hunter series is a very special one indeed. It's one of the biggest video game series in Japan, and the last Monster Hunter game for 3DS, Monster Hunter 3G released during the holiday season of last year in Japan and it, along with Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 catapulted the system to legendary status sales-wise, where it stays to this day. Monster Hunter games are a rarity in America though, so each time we get one is special. The American branch of Capcom has been trolling Monster Hunter fans for the past year regarding the localization of Monster Hunter 3G -- each time it seemed Capcom would finally announce the game coming over to the West, MH fans would get their hopes up, only to get their dreams bloodily crushed and for them to shed delicious, high in sodium tears. Fortunately, Monster Hunter 3G was announced to be coming over to the West as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate in March 2013 along with a Wii U port of it at the Wii U press event last week. Nevertheless, Japan still stays one step ahead with this game, which is being released there also in March (and if it gets localized, it must likely won't get over here until 2014). It will be the first handheld MH game with online play, and it looks great and fun to play to boot. Of course, that's just my opinion, what do you think? ''Ace Attorney 5'' The Ace Attorney series is another Capcom franchise. The series is a courtroom drama series where you play as a lawyer and take on cases... Trust me, this is much more exciting than it sounds. This game, on 3DS, marks the return of Phoenix Wright, the main protagonist of the first three games and a supporting character in the fourth, to the field of law, joined by a new female assistant with weird hair. The series is well-known for its expertly animated sprites, which look great. To take advantage of the 3DS's hardware, the sprites have been replaced with 3D models, however, Capcom has put so much work in these that you won't even notice the difference. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/random-ness/images/4/44/Ace_Attorney_sprite_to_3D_gif.gif Just look at that. Can you tell? No, no you can't. Capcom of America also trolls fans of this series too - they have begged for the localization of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 for DS, a spin-off of the main series, which came out in Japan a couple of years ago, which the company repeatedly hints at and denies them of. Fortunately, localization of AA5 was confirmed the day after it was first unveiled in an issue of Japanese magazine Famitsu, so hopefully we won't have to wait too long for this one. ''Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney'' AA5 isn't the lawyer's only outing on the 3DS though - he also appears in Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney. Level-5 and Capcom have teamed up to give us this crossover between the famous puzzle and courtroom drama series, featuring the two main characters from each franchise - Professor Layton and Luke Triton from Layton, and Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey from Attorney. In the game, the characters themselves in a separate world from the ones they're in in their respective titles, "Labyrinth City", and have to uncover the mystery behind it, as well as help a young girl named Mahoney who's been accused of being a witch. It combines the gameplay system froms both series and, although the Phoenix Wright 3D model in this game may not look as spiffy as the one in AA5, don't let that turn you off from this amazing crossover. The title hits Japanese stores November 29, 2012. ''Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies'' The Professor is also starring in a game of his own on 3DS - Professor Layton and the Azran Legacies. The title is the sixth in the series, but the second on 3DS, after Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, which was a launch title in Japan and will be arriving in America next month. This has been confirmed to be the last game in the series - or at least the last one featuring Layton as the protagonist - so it's sure to be a big one. It's set to be released in 2013. ''Project X Zone'' Project X Zone is one of the most unique games in this batch. It's a crossover between Capcom, Sega, and Bandai Namco, featuring characters from many of their flagship titles in one game -- so yes, you have characters from Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mega Man X. And, to expand on that last franchise I mentioned, Mega Man is another series that Capcom regularly trolls its fans on. Numerous times has it announced games in it, only to eventually cancel them on later (the recent Mega Man Legends 3 whose end led to meltdowns all over the internet is an example of this). This is one of the few games featuring MM in the past few years that'll actually live to see the light of day. The game is chockful of beautifully animated sprites rendered against 3D backgrounds. Though it's an RPG, the game seems more like an action game, as it looks crazy in motion. Its Tokyo Game Show trailer, and the last trailer of this blog, is 16 minutes long, so if by the end of it, you're not convinced that needs to be brought over to the States, then I'm afraid there's no help for you. The lucky Japanese get to pick this up on October 11, same date as Bravely Default. Double the goodness, wouldn't you say? ---- Category:Blog posts